mar m, f (plural mares) 1  sea 2008, CÃ©cile Corbel (lyrics and music), âEn la mar [In the Middle of the Sea]]â, in Songbook vol. 2 (CD, in Spanish), Brittany: Keltia Musique, performed by CÃ©cile Corbel: En la mar hay una torre. En la torre una ventana. 2  seaside. ( 3 selenology) lunar mare.
Within the Pale ditch, settlers lived under the protection of the crown. But once you passed the Pale, you were outside the authority and safety of English law, and subject to all the savageries of rural Ireland. Beyond the pale then became a colloquial phrase meaning outside the limits of acceptable behavior or judgment. Also beyond the pale: hipster haircuts. The English made every attempt not to succumb to the culture beyond the pale. Settlers were forbidden to intermarry with the Irish, and it was illegal to speak Gaelic. The woolen mantles worn by Irish peasants had to be exchanged for good English cloaks, and the glib was banned as well.
From pale (âjurisdiction of an authority, territory under an authority's jurisdictionâ), suggesting that anything outside the authority's jurisdiction was uncivilized. The phrase was in use by the mid-17th century, and may be a reference to the general sense of boundary, but is often understood to refer specifically to the English Pale in Ireland. In the nominally English territory of Ireland, only the Pale fell genuinely under the authority of English law, hence the terms within the pale and beyond the pale. The boundary of the Ashdown Forest (a royal hunting forest) was also known as the Pale, consisting of a paled fence and a ditch inside, to allow deer to jump in, but not back out. Prepositional phrase . beyond the pale. Used other than as an idiom: beyond the extent or limits (of the thing named).